Monday, October 4, 2010

Back to work... project update

I finally came back home few days ago from a long (but very interesting) businness trip to the United States and I have to confess that, right now, I am struggling to find the motivations to work on FSX.It is not because of the recent announcement of Microsoft Flight. It is just the fact that add-on development requires inspiration. Even payware requires it, as, at present, my revenue for the F-35 is around 4 Euros per working hour. But again, the F-35 was a fund-rising initiative - this figure is just to give an idea of what are the earnings you can expect.So, not much inspiration in these days. And Halo Reach and Fifa 11 on the X360.Still here is an update of the projects I'm working on... In detail:

F-35A Lightining II - Finally some Air-to-air configurations images have been released to the public, sporting an impressive load of 12x Amraam + 2x Asraam... And I would really like to add this configuration to the F-35A, along with some other minor fixes. So, most likely a further update is inbound. Also, I've tried to add specular and bump maps to the cockpit model...and quickly overshoot FSX framebuffer limitations. There are workaround for this, like splitting the polys in different framebuffers as I did for external models, but this will impact the frame rates, so I'll probably drop this feature.

F-35B VTOL version -I've started making one, and it is not looking that bad. Will post some details in the next few days. Yes, I know IRIS is making one - but I simply could not resist. Then I have no idea when and if it will be finished.

F-35CCATOBAR version - I've started this one too...but blending a completely new wing to the existing model is very complex. The first attempt was really ugly. I will try again, but it is harder than I expected, so I am not sure it will ever be good enough for release.

T-45C Goshawk - Fuselage and wings 3d models are done and they are MUCH better than the previous one. I'm also trying to keep the polycount low with some success. Also I've redone the main landing gear and it is closer to the real thing (and finally retracts correctly).

F-14D Tomcat - Professional 3d data is looking great, although it is a frame-rate killer. I honestly have no idea when I will be able to complete it. Also, I've seen that Aerosoft has started their own F-14A project, which, for Tomcat fans like me, it is great news. I wish all the best to the Aerosoft team - I am sure that they can deliver a spectacular Tomcat. They are good designers and if their F-14 turns out to be as good as the F-16 I will surely purcahes it. As for my rendition...well, I am quite happy with it right now - but again it take a long time before it is ready.

Unidentified Aermacchi project - well, not much work so far. Likely to be the first Aermacchi for Flight (just joking!)

Now, I'll continue in English for a general update... I was reviewing the projects tonight and, well, frankly the F-35B is not looking that good, too. While some parts of the fuselage look good, all those boolean operations on the F-35A mesh resulted in very jaggy normals and uneven surfaces. I do not like it and... well, I am considering to drop it. I'll rethink about that tomorrow, but it is not as good as I wanted it to be.

Hey Dino, no worries, what you've already done so far has been inspirational. I've tried and failed (so far) to do my own fsx planes, but I am persevering because I have sen what can be done. I think I can speak for the worldwide flighsim community when I say a very simple thank you Dino. All the best in whatever the future brings you.

This is a new version of the F-35 project that improves the freeware version in several areas including new visual models, additional avionics functionalities (with TFLIR, DAS and ASR imaging support) and new flight dynamics.

FREEWARE DOWNLOADS

This section provides download links for the latest official releases of my freeware projects. Normally, these files are also uploaded to avsim.com and flightsim.com, although there is no guarantee that any external website has the latest version.

IF YOU WISH TO DONATE...

In November 2015, IndiaFoxtEcho Visual Simulation has been officially registered as a company and will venture into the production of payware add-ons.
This does not mean that freeware will be abandoned, but rather will provide the means for funding more complex (and hopefully better) addons. The fist two payware projects will be the new F-35 for Prepar3d v.25 and the Military Avatars Package.
Still, if you like my freeware projects and wish to make a donation here is a Paypal "donate" button.